Dear God
"Dear God" is a song by Andy Partridge. It originally appeared as a B-side to the "Grass" 12" single in 1986, but some radio stations began playing "Dear God" instead, making it an unexpected hit. It was then made into its own single and placed on a quick re-release of the Skylarking album, replacing "Mermaid Smiled". Recent re-releases include both tracks, with "Dear God" indicated as the bonus. The single reached No. 15 on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart. A promo video was filmed, which won the Billboard Best Video award for 1987. It was also nominated for the 1987 MTV Best Director, Best Concept, and Best Innovation awards, but it won neither of the three. The band demo appeared on the 2002 Coat of Many Cupboards box set. A skiffle version appeared on Andy's Fuzzy Warbles Volume 5 in 2004. Single tracklisting UK, West Germany 7" single #A-side: "Dear God" #B-side: "Big Day" (Colin Moulding) Canada 7" single, UK 12" single #A-side 1: "Dear God" #A-side 2: "Big Day" #B-side: "Another Satellite (BBC Version)" USA 12" single #A-side 1: "Dear God" #A-side 2: "Extrovert" #B-side 1: "Earn Enough for Us" #B-side 2: "Grass" Dear God EP # "Dear God" :Homo Safari series # "Homo Safari" # "Bushman President" # "Egyptian Solution (Thebes in a Box)" # "Mantis on Parole" # "Frost Circus" # "Procession Towards Learning Land" 7" USA promo single #A-side: "Dear God" #B-side: "Dear God" 7" USA single #A-side: "Dear God" #B-side: "Mermaid Smiled" Quotes Andy: “This was the B-side to ‘Grass’, but radio stations started to flip it over. The lyrics really got up some people's noses, and it became a big radio hit. Whoever first flipped it probably saved us.” Andy (on the band demo): “A lot has been written and wrangled over with this song, and, you know, it hasn't deserved it. I just tried to wrestle with the paradox of God and the last dying doubts of belief that had hung, bat like, in the dark corners of my head since childhood. I'll just say one more time this song failed to crystalize all my thoughts on the subject in under 4 minutes. Human belief is too big a beast to bring to the floor in such a short time. “This tune had a few incarnations. It started as a kind of skiffle rag with a much bluesier melody but after several blacksmith like bending and bashing sessions (oddly, in my kitchen) it gradually morphed into its well known shape. “On the run up to the Skylarking sessions with Todd Rundgren, we congregated at Dave's tiny terraced house, in Swindon's Stanier Street, to record a few band demos on his four track reel to reel. So, awash with much tea and ginger biscuits, we tackled this and ‘Summer's Cauldron’, trying to get something presentable for Todd. Dave found a very ‘House of the Rising Sun’ arpeggio guitar figure to ornament my rather pedestrian acoustic strumming, while Colin anchored away with the Linn drum pretending to be a future Prairie Prince. The Mellotron had been living at Dave's for a few months (where he would tend lovingly its Heath Robinsonesque guts) so we decided this would supply the strings, I'd asked for something a bit Gershwin in the middle, a pinch of ‘Summertime’, a soupçon of ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’. You know, ‘Dat Ol' Debbil Be A Coming Missy’, orchestral blues bend. I remember that Dave's front room floral wallpaper seemed to gaze down at us with almost temperance meeting scorn, as we stirred up our sinful sounds that afternoon. “Surely, for this tune, we will burn in Hull.” Andy (on the skiffle version): “Found this a while back laying cowering in a corner of a cassette. It's pretty much me feeling-out the tune with blah blah type lyrics. Little did I know that this piece of brain blurt would be the tip of the iceberg to so much more acceptance for XTC in the U.S. Thank you God.” Lyrics Dear God, hope you got the letter, and I pray you can make it better down here I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer But all the people that you made in your image See them starving on their feet 'Cause they don't get enough to eat from God I can't believe in you Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but I feel that I should be heard loud and clear We all need a big reduction in amount of tears And all the people that you made in your image See them fighting in the street 'Cause they can't make opinions meet about God I can't believe in you Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make mankind after we made you? And the devil too Dear God, don't know if you noticed, but Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look And all the people that you made in your image Still believing that junk is true Well I know it ain't and so do you, dear God I can't believe in I don't believe in I won't believe in heaven and hell No saints, no sinners, no devil as well No pearly gates, no thorny crown You're always letting us humans down The wars you bring, the babes you drown Those lost at sea and never found And it's the same the whole world 'round The hurt I see helps to compound The Father, Son and Holy Ghost Is just somebody's unholy hoax And if you're up there you'll perceive That my heart's here upon my sleeve If there's one thing I don't believe in It's you Dear God Videos Promo Promo video for "Dear God." Uploaded by YouTube user "ANTM1977." Category:Discography Category:Videography Category:Songs by Andy Partridge Category:Controversial Songs